Maobea

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Hi All,
I've got this reddish/brownish thing that keeps growing in my sand. I stir the sand almost daily, but the next day it's back on my sand bed. It almost looks like diatoms, but I'm not sure that's what it is. My tank is a little over a year old. At this point I'm thinking either dino or cyano. I treated it with chemiclean but got no results on the sand bed - it did remove some that was growing on the rock. so I'm leaning more towards dinoflagellates, but after looking through the microscope, they don't seem to be moving. So i'm a little lost here. I have taken pictures from the aquarium as well as from the microscope in the hopes that somebody will help me identify what is is. Thank you all in advance!

PICT0026.JPG IMG_1898.jpg
 

ndrwater

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Cyano bacteria. Fairly common in new tanks. Usually goes away on its own once the tank settles in a bit more.
If it really becomes an issue, there are products out there to combat a large outbreak.
I wouldn't recommend going that route just yet. The active ingredient in most of the "get rid of Cyano" products is erythromycin, and antibacterial that doesn't discriminate between good or bad bacteria
 
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Maobea

Maobea

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Cyano bacteria. Fairly common in new tanks. Usually goes away on its own once the tank settles in a bit more.
If it really becomes an issue, there are products out there to combat a large outbreak.
I wouldn't recommend going that route just yet. The active ingredient in most of the "get rid of Cyano" products is erythromycin, and antibacterial that doesn't discriminate between good or bad bacteria
The tank is over a year old, not sure if that still qualifies a "new" or not. It has been going on for a couple of months now. I did have red slime in my overflow and rocks and when I looked through the microscope that looked like your typical cyano (red stringy cells) as well as spiralina. I did dose chemiclean red cyano remover and it got rid of the cyano on the rocks/coral skeletons, but didnt do anything to the sand bed.
 

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A year is indeed still relatively new. Like I said above, it can and does come and go.
Oftentimes, increased flow will help in trouble spots.
 
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Maobea

Maobea

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A year is indeed still relatively new. Like I said above, it can and does come and go.
Oftentimes, increased flow will help in trouble spots.
Yes, I've directed the flow a little towards the sand bed in hopes that it'll lift it up and gets picked up by my skimmer. seems to be helping a bit. Thank you for your opinion!
 

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